This date in Weekender history: B.B. talks!

Music: The legendary B.B. King, 77, returns to the Majestic Theatre. The cover was a posterized version of this image. King talked at length with music writer Jim Beal Jr. in a telephone interview from his hotel room in Memphis. Some excerpts:

• “I think I started sort of like you see young people in sports today. I had heard from people that I was pretty good and I thought I was pretty good. I was still living near the plantation and I knew that there was a better life somewhere. So I moved.”

• “I see myself as an amateur that you hire to play tonight. Tomorrow night you might have someone in who’s better. That’s how I see my career.”

• “I never think I’ve got it made. Except back in the ’70s for a while I thought I was a standard artist when you could turn on the radio anywhere and hear ‘The Thrill Is Gone.’ Then I was treated like an artist. I believe blues is more popular now than I’ve ever known it and that’s thanks to young people who support us. But big radio stations don’t program the blues.”

Also in Music: The Jagermeister Music Tour played Sunset Station featuring Saliva, (hed) Planet Earth, Breaking Benjamin (described as a “young Pennsylvania act”), Stereomud and Systematic. Tickets for ZZ Top’s April 29 Verizon show went on sale. And Aaron Neville played Gruene Hall. Beal talked to him, too. Asked about the care and feeding of his angelic voice, he said, “Don’t put nothin’ foreign in your body. Don’t drink, smoke or scream. Singing is just something that comes natural. It was bred in me and I want to share it.”

Events: Also at the Majestic — Ellen DeGeneres doing standup. But not for long. “This is probably the last time I will do this,” she said in a wire-service interview. “I am saying goodbye to standup.” And remember when the Miss USA pageant was held in SA? A week of activities and photo ops culminated with the pageant in Municipal Auditorium.

Movies: Look, it’s the dude from “Band of Brothers”! Damian Lewis has some really unpleasant close encounters in “Dreamcatcher.” Plus “Boat Trip,” the movie that made Cuba Gooding Jr. what he is today &#151: a laughing stock (when he’s not wearing MJ’s underwear). In his half-star review, Roger Ebert wrote:

” ‘Boat Trip’ arrives preceded by publicity saying many homosexuals have been outraged by the film. Now that it’s in theaters, everybody else has a chance to join them.”

Events: Hey, look! The Final Four is coming to S.A.! NCAA Hoop City opens in the Convention Center to provide an interactive preview of the games, which are happening March 28 and 30 in the Alamodome. My favorite attraction was the Slam Dunk Challenge featuring an adjustable-height goal so even people like me could dunk. Apologies, though, for the headline “Knee-deep in the hoopla.” No one should ever steal from Jefferson Starship.

Music: Everybody off the tracks! It’s Grand Funk Railroad! The reunited trio — Mark Farner, Mel Schacher and Don Brewer — plays a sold-out Sunken Garden. Music writer Ramiro Burr interviewed drummer Brewer, who said, “We’re having a ball. Every place we go, it’s like a reunion with our fans.” Also, it’s good to see my vinyl copy of the group’s second album, “Grand Funk” (1969), in print again. I remember dragging it to work so our engraving department could shoot it to illustrate “Grand Funk on record,” a look at their discography I wrote to go with Ramiro’s interview. I still have the velox (a reproduction of a photo that we pasted onto the page) taped to my monitor at work.

Also in music: Saxon at Blue Bonnet Palace and Riders in the Sky at Laurie.

Music: Kenny G at Sea World! Free-lancer Ron Young was brave enough to talk to the soprano-sax ace. “Radio has been accommodating to my music,” he said. “It’s a tough job to get onto AC (Adult Contemporary) and Top 40 stations, even with the history I have, because there’s so little room for instrumentals.” Awww. Too bad.

Also, the Triple Play Tour plays Blue Bonnet Palace. The package country tour of new signees to Mercury Records stars John Brannen, Toby Keith and Shania Twain (pronounced shu-NYE-uh, country-music writer Wiley Alexander adds helpfully). Brannen’s career was sidetracked by a drug problem. Wonder whatever happened to the other two?

Movies: Bridget Fonda stars in “Point of No Return,” a Hollywood remake of “La Femme Nikita.” Also opening — the Aussie dance yarn “Strictly Ballroom,” which I liked and which my wife and daughter loved (and watched over and over on DVD). Plus “Rich in Love” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.”

Events: The Carver Center is a global dance mecca, hosting the Bebe Miller Co. from New York, followed by Ghana to Texas, described as “a multicultural dance and theater extravaganza.” And Patsy Torres is the star of Pollo Fest at Assumption Seminary. I don’t know whether to be proud or ashamed of my headline, “Festgoers can eat chicken, catch a Torres.” My excuse — sleep deprivation.